Fresh Cabbage Salad

Cabbage is one of my favorite veggies. It’s an amazing source of cancer-preventing nutrients and vitamin C. I love it because it’s also delicious (and super cost-effective)!

  
This fresh salad is easy to throw together and bursting with flavor:

Chop 1/4 cabbage into thin slices. 

In a separate bowl, mix together 2 Tbs. Rice Vinegar, 3 Tbs. Olive Oil, 2 Tbs. Honey. Pour this dressing over the cabbage and toss to coat. Season liberally with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Ginger. 

I like to add chopped almonds or cubed chicken for a more hearty dish!

Enjoy 

Healthy Snack Roundup

Who doesn’t love a good snack? It’s not quite time for a meal yet, but you’re feeling a little hungry, or you are sitting down to a good movie or to get some work done and you just want something to munch – am I right?

But snacks are ALWAYS where I find myself falling off track with my nutrition. I over do it, I choose something unhealthy, I ruin my appetite for my next meal and I feel discouraged that an otherwise healthy day has now been ruined by the potato chip bag, or candy bar.

So, here are some of my all time favorite snacks, they take very little (if any) time to prepare and when I have the ready in my fridge or pantry I can snack to my hearts content, knowing that I am staying on track with my nutrition and fueling my body for everything I have going on in a day!

• Bell Peppers with Tuna
• Baby Carrots with Hummus
• Bananas with Peanut Butter and Walnuts
• Homemade Granola with Yogurt
• Apples with Cheddar Cheese
• Air-popped Popcorn
• Almonds with Dark Chocolate
• Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
• No Bake Energy Bites

Watermelon Feta Salad

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us! Bring on the BBQ and the chips and the ice cream and the SABOTAGE!!

Don’t let all your hard work go to waste!

Here is one of my FAVORITE fruit salads, that gives a good balance of sweet and salty and juicy and crunchy – it’s addicting and super healthy for you!
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Watermelon Feta Salad

Chop watermelon and tomatoes into cubes, drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Add feta and chopped almonds to taste. Garnish with fresh mint for an even more fresh burst of flavor and enjoy!!
(The tomatoes are optional – I like them because they balance the sweetness of the watermelon, but if you aren’t a tomato fan, the watermelon alone is still pretty rocking!)

Zucchini Breakfast Muffins

For a while now I’ve felt super uncomfortable with the amount of cereal my kids consume. They LOVE it and ask for it for breakfast almost every day. It’s just SO EASY that I had made it one of my staple grocery items, but when it comes to starting off their day right – Honey Nut Cheerios just wasn’t cutting it in the nutrients department.

This week I decided to do something about it! I made a plan to not buy ANY cereal, but make homemade granola and zucchini breakfast muffins instead. It was work! But BOY did it feel great to give my kids some amazing nutrients for breakfast this morning!!

Here is my recipe:

Zucchini Breakfast Muffins
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Preheat oven to 350 degree

Blend together in large bowl:
– 3 Eggs
– 1 Cup Sugar
– 1 Cup Oil

In separate bowl mix together:
– 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
– 1 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
– 1 tsp. Baking Soda
– 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
– 3 tsp. Cinnamon
– 1 tsp. Salt

Add to flour mixture:
– 2 Cups Shredded Zucchini

Mix well and fold into wet ingredients.

Finally add:
– 1 Cup Crushed Pineapple
– 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
– 1/2 Cup Raisins or Craisins

Fill a muffin tin with muffin liners. Scoop batter into each muffin liner, filling 2/3 of the way full. Cook for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Enjoy!!

Getting Fit as a Mom is SUPER HARD!

There I’ve said it.
Here are four reasons why.

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Reason 1: You have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn.

Oh! the baby was up five times last night? Surely your pure love of exercise and the motivation for losing those last 20lbs will propel you out of bed! #nevermissamonday

Reason 2: Working out with your kids gets messy and complicated – QUICK

If you somehow weren’t able to get your workout done before the kiddos woke up, just workout with your kids! It’s not hard. Haven’t you seen all those videos on instagram? Just go outside, put one in the stroller and do squats, the other kids will most surely just play nearby (or maybe even join you!) and NEVER run off, or throw rocks at some other kid, or ask you a million times “NOW can we go play at the park?”

Or do an at home workout, don’t worry about those heavy dangerous weights, I’m sure your kids would never try to pick one up and drop it on their foot – or get in a fight with their sister – or want a drink of water – or need to go to the bathroom.

Or go to a gym with childcare – the amount of time it takes you to get everyone out the door will probably be longer than the time you actually spend at the gym, but totally worth it.

Why You’re Not a Beachbody Coach…

So maybe you’re perfect for it!

You’re creative. You are passionate. Self motivated. Driven. Smart. Funny. Genuine. You “get” social media.

You love putting together that perfect outfit (even if you rarely have the opportunity to actually get dressed up these days). You’ve been talking about green smoothies for years, your friends know you’re going to try to get them to eat things with ingredients like “maca root”.

You can relate to me and my crazy children-filled life and we would probably be friends in real life if we were around each other in real life. You even know a little bit about Beachbody stuff already. Maybe a friend’s cousin’s ex girlfriend is a coach and you see her talking about it on Facebook.

You buy organic when you can. You want to feel good. You value your health. But you’re also no one to shy away from opening a bottle of wine after a long day and finish that baby off while watching a Scandal marathon (no judging here!). You want to be your own boss. You have it all… the perfect combo to be an rockstar coach on our team. But you aren’t one.

I think I know why…

5 Ingredient Paella

This recipe is neither simple, nor quick. However, even though it is an involved, time consuming recipe there are really only 5 main ingredients (not counting oil and seasonings) and 5 main steps.

This really wasn’t the BEST time for me to be attempting a recipe like this. I was elbow deep in preparations for my first 100% paid for, all inclusive Success Club trip with Beachbody – but once I get something in my head, it’s hard to push it aside. Now, mind you, I have NEVER made anything like this before and I was a little doubtful it would end up tasting good at all!

Let me tell you – Fernando and I were supposed to go on a date last night, and we literally scooped up the paella into a tupperware container and ate it at a park because we did not even want anything else from a restaurant – hahahah! It was so FREAKING good!

Here’s what I did!

Step 1 – Make the Rice.

I found this Vigo Saffron Yellow Rice at my local Publix. It makes it so easy because it has all the seasoning in it already! So I got the Family Size and just put it in a pot with 4 cups of water. I think I may have had it on a little too high heat, so the water was mostly gone and the rice still seemed undercooked, so I ended up adding one more cup of water and it was perfect.

After the rice was done I set it aside.

Step 2 – Chicken Thighs

I decided to do a chicken and seafood Paella – when it comes to Paella, you can pretty much throw anything in there that you want. So I got some chicken thighs with the skin and I heated some oil and put salt on the skin and placed them in the pan to get the skin brown and crispy. I had to use two pans for this because I don’t have one that is big enough for all of the chicken. On one of the pans I put the lid on – BIG MISTAKE – it added too much moisture to the pot and the skin didn’t brown well. Keep the lid off and let the oil sear the skin.

After I turned the chicken I added some Paprika, dried Rosemary, Garlic Powder, 1/2 sliced onion, a few red and yellow peppers sliced into strips and let it cook a little more. Then, put all the chicken in one pot with the lid and placed it in a 350 degree oven.

Step 3 – Chorizo

Once the chicken was in the oven to cook a little more, I took out my chorizo. I mistakenly bought Mexican chorizo – it wasn’t the BEST. You really want Spanish chorizo for this dish, but it still gave some good flavor! I just cut it into small pieces and let it get crispy in a saute pan.

Step 4 – Muscles

I had a pack of frozen Muscles from Aldi – super low quality, but it REALLY added some flavor and that subtle sea food taste that just MADE it. So I open the frozen bag and dumped it into one of the pans I had used to sear the chicken in – so it still had some of the paprika, rosemary, garlic powder oil in there. I covered the muscles with a lid and let the moisture steam them.

Step 5 – Assemble

Now that everything was cooked, I got the two medium sized pots (one large pot would be ideal, but it’s all I had) and put 1/2 the rice in each one. I then added the chorizo AND all the grease from the chorizo to mix into the rice. I also added about 1/2 cup of chicken broth to keep the rice and chicken from drying out.  Then I added the chicken, nestling it into the rice and covering it with the rice a bit. After that I put the muscles on top and poured some of the liquid from the pan I cooked the muscles in. Finally I added some frozen peas and sprinkled a little more Paprika, Rosemary Garlic Powder and Salt over the top of everything. 

I covered my first pot and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for a little under 1 hour. Then I covered the second pan and did that one for one hour. When I uncovered the pans, I KNEW this was going to be good. Absolute perfection. Absolutely NOT 5 ingredients. Absolutely NOT 21 Day Fix approved. Totally worth it.

Every once in a while you need to make a crazy delicious Paella and spend some real time doing it.

Mexican Chop Salad with Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

I love salads! Call me lame, but when you pack them with THIS much flavor – I call that winning!

First – you MUST make your own dressing.
It’s only 5 ingredients and totally 100% worth it!

Here’s what you need:
5-6 Limes (1/4 Cup Juice)
1/4 C. Unsweetened Plain Almond Milk
1/4 C. Cilantro
1/2 C. Olive Oil
1 Tbs. Raw Honey
Salt

Put everything into a blender and combine well. Can be stored for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

For the salad:

Roast some corn on the cob, mix with black beans, add some tomatoes and avocado over a bed of romaine.
Enjoy!

(Would probably be amazing topped with steak or grilled shrimp….just saying)

Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Ground Turkey is one of my favorite healthy proteins. It is very affordable and versatile, but can be a little bland at times.

This recipe infuses SO much flavor and is incredibly easy to make.

What you need:

1lb Ground Turkey
Peanut Butter
Soy Sauce
Ginger
Garlic Powder
Chili Powder

Butter Lettuce
Sweet Peppers
Couscous (optional)

Directions:

Brown turkey in a saute pan. Season with salt, ginger, garlic powder and chili powder (I wish I had measurements for you, but I just sprinkle it on and taste as I go). Once browned, stir in a few splashes of soy sauce and 1 Tbs of peanut butter. Remove meat from pan and add thinly sliced sweet peppers. Saute and season with same salt, ginger, garlic powder and chili powder combination. While the peppers are cooking, prepare the couscous according to the boxed directions, and remove the leaves from the butter lettuce.

Layer couscous, peppers and meat in the lettuce ‘boats’. Top with sesame seed if you want to get fancy – or if you are lazy (like I am most of the time) you can just chop the lettuce and make it a ‘salad’ of sorts. Also, for those of us who are paleo or gluten free – leave out the couscous (could substitute quinoa or brown rice as well!). This dinner literally took me 20 minutes to cook and was DELICIOUS!

My Secret for Meal Planning in 5 Minutes (or less)

I just got the 21 Day Fix Extreme and spent yesterday meal planning.
So much has changed since I first started the 21 Day Fix a year ago. I remember pouring over the book and getting my mind around everything and it took HOURS to get everything ready.

Yesterday it took me 5 minutes.

All you need is your 21 Day Fix book, a blank meal planner and some crayons.

Really – it’s that simple.

Watch this video and get planning!

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If you’d like to join me in the 21 Day Fix or the 21 Day Fix Extreme and join one of my Challenge Groups online – I would love to have you! In these groups I share my best tips, meal plans, encouragement and daily motivation to get you the best results!

Click here to order the 21 Day Fix or the 21 Day Fix Extreme and be automatically registered for my next group.